


Blush-a-Lot

by merthurkdramas_101



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: A lot - Freeform, Arthur blushes, Arthur is a Prat, Doctor!Arthur, Fluff, M/M, Mentions of Masturbation, Merlin is a flirty bastard, Merthur - Freeform, Morgana is high, Pharmacist!Merlin, SO MUCH FLUFF, if you couldn't tell, no sexy times, omg, omg its so fluffy, once - Freeform, shameless flirting, the F word is used
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 14:09:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8755597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merthurkdramas_101/pseuds/merthurkdramas_101
Summary: The Pendragon motto, which has been passed down from generation to generation (or so his father tells him), is that Pendragon’s do not blush. At all. And so far, for the past 27 years of his life, Arthur has upheld this tradition. Until he meets Merlin.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!   
> Sooooo I know this has taken way too long for me to update…but this still isn’t the piece I was working on before! I’ve abandoned it for now—not that much inspiration coming towards me recently. BUT! This little drabble is from a situation that happened to me recently and it made me immediately think MERTHUR! The end result is not what happened, unfortunately, because I am socially incompetent and have no idea how to flirt with people, but it’s what I would’ve liked to happen! I hope y’all enjoy this!! And as always, feel free to leave comments, kudos, criticisms, etc. if you wish! They’re more than welcome :3 
> 
> ALSO! I’m working on a more structured fic right now! I realized that if I have a prompt and set storyline to work with, I’m abler to finish it than start off with a completely new idea. But hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? It’s a Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas AU!! It should be out in a month or so since I do have a final project to work on. But keep a look out for it if you want to! :D 
> 
> DISCLAIMER: Merlin and its characters do not belong to me, and I am not getting paid to write this fictional piece—I merely do it because it makes my heart happy <333  
> WARNINGS: my attempt at writing flirting, maybe poorly executed bend and snap, and any other fluff that might be present may be too fluffy for some. I had to drink coffee to get rid of the sweet in my mouth.

The Pendragon motto, which has been passed down from generation to generation (or so his father tells him), is that Pendragon’s do not blush. At all. And so far, for the past 27 years of his life, Arthur has upheld this tradition. There had been many compliments, flirtations while drunk, embarrassing moments and all that, but not once had he let out a blush. And there are other Pendragon traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation. And most of them? Arthur has broken. For example, as far as sexuality goes, everyone has been straight. Arthur is not. His father’s law firm, Pendragon Law Firm, has been in the family for over four generations, but Arthur is a doctor. So, the blushing tradition was bound to be broken. If he can't uphold the Pendragon tradition, he might as well hold up his own traditions...right?

The first time it happened, Arthur was in the middle of getting over his cold. He was barely coherent— _Morgana_ had to drive him to the pharmacy because he couldn’t see straight! —so he partially blames it on his cold, and partially on the pharmacy bloke for being damn gorgeous.

“Hello! Welcome to Camelot Pharmacy. Are you picking up or dropping off today?”

“Uh—” Arthur says brilliantly.

The bloke just chuckles, low in his throat and Arthur can barely make out his sea blue eyes because they’re hidden behind a smile. “Getting over a cold, huh?”

Arthur lets out a sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose. “You have no idea.”

The bloke chuckles again. “Do you have a prescription ready for pick-up or would you like to place one?”

“Um, pick-up. My name’s Pendragon, Arthur.”

“Well Pendragon, Arthur, let’s see what we got here.”

While the bloke is typing away on the computer, Arthur tries to, subtly, lean forward to see if he can make-out the name on his name tag. When he looks back up at the man—his tag says _Merlin_ —he’s surprised to find him almost nose-to-nose to him.

“Um…sorry,” Arthur says as he leans back, feeling the start of a blush on his face. “I couldn’t make out your name.”

When he looks up, Merlin’s full, pink lips are tilted up into a grin and Arthur can make out a dimple on his right cheek.

“You could’ve just asked me, you know.”

“Well then why do you have name tags?”

“I don’t know, actually. But if it’s bringing gorgeous blokes up to my face to get a look at, I don’t mind them, really.”

Arthur could feel his whole body flush at Merlin’s remark but he can’t bring himself to look up at his face. It’s maybe another minute before he sees a white package being pushed up under his nose, and then Arthur’s brain is focusing on the long, delicate fingers that are clutching the bag. When he grabs it from Merlin, he can’t tell if he purposely or accidently brushes Merlin’s fingers while he pulls the bag away.

“Well, that’ll be £5.79.” When Arthur looks up at Merlin, his face is glowing with two bright pink dots on his well-defined cheekbones.

“You’re glowing,” he says, kind of in awe. He’s all…shiny and ethereal.

Merlin’s eyes widen, as does his mouth, and Arthur can’t help but stare at it. When Merlin starts laughing—with a bit of a nervous touch to it, Arthur notices—Arthur blushes, really embarrassed with what he just said.

“You’re…you’re probably not going to remember this, so I’m just going to say that you’re really bloody adorable.”

Arthur can’t feel his face because of how hot he is, but all he remembers is throwing down a ten-pound note and fleeing out the door, barely remembering to pick up his prescription.

***

And Arthur does remember what happened that day. But unfortunately, it doesn’t hit him until he walks into the pharmacy about a month later, eyes flocking to a sort of familiar and sort of brilliantly gorgeous figure standing at the till.

“I was wondering if I would see you again,” Merlin says when it’s Arthur’s turn.

“Ah. Yes, well. I apologize for my indirect behavior. As you know, I was rather delirious and couldn’t be accounted for my actions. If I’ve offended you in any—way…I’m sorry?”

Arthur doesn’t even realize that Merlin’s laughing till he’s almost done with his half-practiced apology. So hard that his throat is exposed, and poor Arthur is left to watch his muscles constrict and veins pop as he’s laughing, feeling a full-body blush ambush him again.

“I’m sorry, but may I ask why you’re laughing?”

Merlin’s beautiful eyes are on him again, crinkled at the corners from smiling too hard, and goddamn it, he has _two_ dimples on either side of his face. And his beautiful, beaming smile is only enhancing those cheekbones. And right now, it’s as if Arthur didn’t even see Merlin the first time—like a haze has finally cleared and everything is crystal clear.

“You’re so proper! I didn’t expect that at all.”

“Is there something wrong with that?” he asks with a frown.

“No! Not at all! Just since after seeing you last time, I… I don’t know. I thought you’d be more of a prat, to be honest with you.”

“Haven’t you heard of the expression first impressions aren’t always correct?” he asks, a little peeved.

“What, so you didn’t find me attractive when you first saw me?”

Arthur looks down at his feet trying (and probably failing) to hide his blush, and he _knows_ Merlin is smirking at him. He can feel it.

“And you said I was a prat.”

Merlin chuckles at him again. “What’s the name under this time, Pendragon, Arthur?”

“Pendragon, Uther. And you do know that my name is Arthur, right?”

“Yeah, but I like seeing you flustered. It’s cute.”

Before Arthur can respond, Merlin’s gone to find his father’s medication. And when he bends down to sort through the P’s, Arthur swears that Merlin is bending down extra slow to give a show of his nice, pert ass. When he stands up, Arthur can’t help but laugh because he most definitely just did the bend and snap, hands framing the top of his chest, medicine packet flailing and hitting Merlin square in the chest.

“Oh my God, the bend and snap! Works every time! NOT!” an employee from behind yells at Merlin. Merlin just waves it off as he strides towards Arthur with the same, ridiculously fond grin on his face. His cheeks are pink though, again, and they look like cotton candy. Arthur loves cotton candy.

“Do that to all your customers, do you?” Arthur says, feeling a little more confident.

“Oh yeah. Especially the elderly. They love it when a young thing like me puts on a show.”

Arthur can’t help but throw his head back and laugh at the silliness.

“Total’s £9.32,” Merlin offers with a shy smile.

Arthur hands him the notes and blushes (again? really?) as their fingers brush.

“You blush a lot, you know that?” Merlin whispers.

“That’s hardly my fault,” he whispers back.

“If I didn’t know you any better, I’d say that you’ve never flirted with a bloke before.”

“And who says you know me?”

“Well, I’ve seen you at your most incoherent, so I’d say I think I know the real you a bit better than any other bloke just walking down the street.”

“That wasn’t me at my best. You can’t think to know me based on one bad display.”

“On the contrary,” Merlin says as he leans forward, just barely three inches from Arthur’s face. From here, Arthur can see that his blue, blue eyes are lined with stripes of gold and his breath stops for a moment. “That display was the cutest thing I’ve seen.”

“I—well…you—I don’t…huh?”

Merlin’s smirk creeps up slowly to a hushed grin, soft and private despite being in such a public place. But it makes something warm creep into his chest. When Merlin winks, the warmth only spreads.

“I’ve got other customers, you know. I’ll see you around, yeah?”

Arthur nods and almost trips over his feet as he walks towards the door. When he looks back, he sees Merlin give a shy wave before he turns back to the old lady, who looks kind of appalled but invested in whatever was happening between them.

Well, Arthur thinks, that makes two of us.

***

The next time he goes in is two weeks later, after Morgana’s wisdom teeth extraction. He tries to get her to sit in the car, but Arthur figures that a drugged up Morgana plus a running car is probably not a good combination. He brings her in and tries to keep her by the greeting cards and stuffed animals there. He seems happy when he finds her stroking a stuffed pony and tries not to laugh at her ramblings before he gets in the queue to pick up his sister’s medicine.

“Arthur!”

And Arthur can’t help but blush at that because he doesn’t think anyone’s said his name like that before—like they’re excited to see him. He offers a small smile as he rattles off his sister’s name. He’s trying to think of what to say to Merlin next when Morgana clings on his arm and gives him a kiss on his cheek.

“Arthur! Who is that? He’s so bloody gorgeous. But let’s goooo, Arthur I want to go home. What’s taking so long?”

And really, he should be taking this down as blackmail because Morgana’s his older sister, his 32-year-old older sister, and she’s acting like she’s 15. But he’s annoyed at her because the last thing he wants to do is take care of her when he’s in front of probably the only guys who’s going to flirt with him.

“I’ll be done in a second, Morgana, relax,” Arthur says as he’s trying to tell her with his eyes to _fuck off because I’m trying to flirt but it’s not working so stay and help me._ Because even when Morgana’s drunk and not able to talk, she can still manage to flirt ridiculously well.

Morgana sees some of this, at least, and tries to sober up as much as she can, eyeing Merlin, who’s just got back to the till.

“I see I’ve interrupted something. I’m sorry,” she says.

“No, it’s no problem at all. Just about done,” Merlin says.

As Merlin’s ringing up the medicine, Arthur notices that he’s more rigid than he was a minute ago. His shoulders are tensed up, eyes are lacking the warmth Arthur saw earlier, and there’s a hint of something else there. Something that Arthur doesn’t know what to call it, but he does know that he doesn’t like it one bit.

“He’s gorgeous, Arthur, you could’ve told me you wanted some time alone,” she whispers in his ear.

“It’s barely my fault, Morgana. You strode in here all murderous like and attacked me like an octopus,” he fires back.

She smirks at him. “Need some help? It is, after all, the first time you’re trying to hit on people after coming out.”

He came out to his family three months ago, but he’s known he was gay since he was 16-years-old when he was invited to Valiant’s pool party for the end of that year’s football season. He left almost as soon as he saw the number of shirtless guys, dripping wet from the water, some wearing shirts that were just… _clinging_ to their bodies. _Football_ boys bodies. Which, _God_. Let’s just say that Arthur didn’t leave his room for the rest of the afternoon. He didn’t tell anyone, except for Morgana, about him being gay because he was studying to be a doctor, and God knows he didn’t need any distractions from that studying.

That’s not to say that Arthur had no experience with guys whatsoever. There were weekends of one-night-stands, anonymous fucks in the club, and there was even Gwaine, his first ever fuck buddy. They lasted for about three months before Gwaine met Percy, and Arthur was okay with that since he knew Gwaine wouldn’t be right for him.

Flirting with guys, though. That is something he didn’t know how to do. He was attractive enough—guys always flocked to him in the club, so he had no problem getting home with people. But conversation has never been his strong suit.

“I don’t need help from _you_ , thank you.”

“Suit yourself, dear,” she says with a sigh. She kisses his cheek again before she skips—yes, _skips_ —to the pony again.

“That’ll be £7.29,” Merlin says.

When Arthur looks up at him, his face is set with a polite smile, one he thinks Merlin uses on a daily basis, with customers who try his patience, when all he wants to do is bash their head in. His dimples aren’t showing at all.

“Um, yeah,” he says as he pulls out a note.

“Here’s your change, sir. Have a nice day.” Arthur flinches when Merlin says ‘sir’, wondering what happened in the past minute or so for his attitude to change so abruptly.

“You too, Merlin,” he says, and he tries to offer a small smile, but Merlin’s eyes are already on the customer behind him.

When he gets into the car, Morgana nearly pounces on him for information. It doesn’t hit him till he gets Morgana in bed and has her take the pills for her teeth that he realizes Merlin could’ve seen Morgana as his girlfriend.

He avoids Morgana for the next two days.

***

“Welcome to Camelot Pharma—”

“She’s my sister, not my girlfriend,” Arthur says four days later.

He sees Merlin’s eyes lighten up with a flicker of something—hope maybe?— before he schools his features and says, “I’m sorry?”

“The woman you saw last time. Her name is Morgana and she’s my sister. I don’t have a girlfriend. Or boyfriend. But I would like a boyfriend. I haven’t had one yet. I came out a few months ago to my family. I’m a doctor so I had to focus on my studies, and I didn’t want to be distracted by anyone so—”

Arthur keeps rambling until he peeks up at Merlin and finds him chuckling again, fond smile on his face and arms across his chest.

“I was right. You are a prat.”

“Excuse me? I’m explaining now, I don’t see how—”

“You could’ve told me that four days ago! Didn’t you think a beautiful woman like that running up to you and kissing you would make me—” Merlin’s lips snap together before he finishes that sentence, but there’s the beginnings of a blush on his face.

Arthur grins. “Why, Merlin. Were you _jealous_?”

Merlin murmurs something under his breath that sounds like _prat_ and _bastard_ , but he leaves it as he asks, “So, who’s got a prescription today? Any other sisters or _brothers_ I need to know about?”

“You know, that seems kind of incestuous.”

Merlin holds up his hands and shrugs. “You said it. Not me. Prat,” he finishes with a smile.

“Well, I have been told on more than one occasion that I need to get the stick that’s in my ass removed.”

“Lots of people, eh? Any chance it’s still up there? I could help out if you wanted me to.”

Arthur’s eyes snap to Merlin’s, and he finds his familiar fond smile, features relaxed, but eyes so dark they could be a black hole.

“I—I don’t…I…”

Someone clears their throat behind them.

“Look, if you’re not picking up anything, I have a break in five minutes. I’ll meet you out back?”

Arthur nods dumbly before turning around and heading outside, heart beating incredibly fast.

***

“So, not your girlfriend then,” Merlin says after a few seconds of just standing against the wall of the building. It’s cloudy out, the beginnings of December weather make his face pink enough that he hopes it hides however many blushes are to come.

“No.”

“And no boyfriend either.”

Arthur shakes his head. He’s nervous as fuck and has no idea what to do in this kind of situation. He kind of wants to kiss Merlin senseless and drag him home for a fuck, but he also wants to hug him and snuggle under warm blankets with him, sipping at cocoa while ignoring a bad movie in favor of staring out at the snow falling from Arthur’s flat. It’s very new and overwhelming, and honestly, Arthur has no idea what to do.

“Arthur, look at me,” Merlin says softly.

So he turns towards Merlin, mouth open and ready to confess, to tell him he has no clue how to take the next step. But Merlin’s hands are on each side of his face, thumbs rubbing up and down on his cheeks, pulling their faces so their noses knock together.

“I’m gonna kiss you now. If that’s okay.”

Arthur barely nods before Merlin’s lips are on his. And it’s chaste and slow at first; just a pull of lips, a little drag of teeth on the bottom lip, but oh _God_ does it feel amazing. When Merlin pulls away, Arthur has to fight to open his eyes. And when he does, he sees Merlin give him the same smile he’s come to love—it’s soft and private and meant for just the both of them. And this time, there’s no one here to interfere.

“That was—” Merlin starts.

“Bloody fantastic,” Arthur finishes.

They share a laugh for a moment before Arthur wraps one arm around Merlin’s waist and brings the other to his hair, twisting his fingers in the soft, raven curls before pulling him in for another kiss. There’s tongue this time, but Arthur’s the one who starts it—licking at Merlin’s top lip twice before reaching out to touch Merlin’s tongue. When he does, Merlin moans, and it goes straight to Arthur’s cock, so he pulls Merlin in even closer so their bottom halves touch. And when Merlin does something with his tongue, they shift, move their bodies up together, and they both let out a moan and pull apart.

“I have no idea what I’m doing,” Arthur blurts.

Merlin laughs before pulling Arthur in for a hug, nuzzling his face into the crook of his neck.

“You’re doing fine. We can take it slow, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

They stand like that for a few minutes, and Arthur enjoys the embrace. He’s been held down while being fucked into, arms around him, but not so tightly as now. Not with merlin’s cold nose poking at his neck, the beginnings of a smile he can feel forming as well. It lasts for hours, Arthur thinks, but it can’t be more than a minute before Arthur pulls back and sneezes into his elbow.

Merlin laughs again and pulls away, brushing Arthur’s hair out of his eyes. “Let’s get you inside. Don’t want you getting another cold.”

Arthur chuckles as he makes his way towards the door, but Merlin pulls him back to give him another kiss on the lips. It’s chaste this time; just a peck. But it leaves Arthur breathless because it’s more affection than he’s ever gotten. And he blushes. Merlin kisses his nose before they head inside, fingers and hands twisted together at their side.

And later that night; after dinner and a drink; when Merlin kisses his forehead goodnight, Arthur feels like he won’t ever catch a cold again because of how warm he feels.

~~~~~~

**Author's Note:**

> That’s that! Ridiculously fluffy, I know, and the ending probably could’ve been better, but hey—I’m all warm and fuzzy inside, so I don’t mind it lolol! 
> 
> So the story with me, if anyone is interested—there was a really cute girl behind the till of my pharmacy one afternoon, but I couldn’t tell if she was gay or not…so I basically just said “have a nice day” with a smile, hoping she knew I was interested…but I never went back cause my school is in a different city and ugh. I don’t know man. Dating/flirting/doing anything with people in general is so hard lol! But this is my fantasy of how it should’ve gone lol.
> 
> Anyways! Any suggestions or criticisms y’all might have, please let me know! I’d be more than happy to fix anything :3 And as always, if I’ve offended anyone at any point during this fic, I’m so sorry and it was completely unintentional! Please let me know where I’ve caused offence and I’ll fix it as soon as I can! <333 love y’all! Hope your holidays are starting off nicely, and good luck to anyone who has finals projects, papers or exams! <333


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